I’ve been looking around for places to skate. Last Tuesday, (I know it was a while ago…) a few of us went looking for a place to skate. I took the plastic cups, ribbon, and sidewalk chalk to the park across the street, along with my niece, nephew, wife, and mother-in-law. It was a family outing. There was a straight-away street that is beside the school and park that I thought I would be skating on. However, when I got there, it was terrible pavement as well as highly traveled. So I picked the side walk along this street. It was thin, but newly paved. I set up about 15 cups spaced 120cm. Then the fun began. It was pretty simple because the 120 cm spaced cups are easier. After the skate, while skating back home, I noticed a very cool basketball court. It’s paved nicely and would certainly be great for skating. The problem with it though is many times, basketball courts have rules that one can not skate on them. So, I checked for rules. Guess what, there are none! So next session in MA we will be skating there. I can not wait. I am also going to be purchasing some of the Ikea cups that Jeremy found. I need to be skating now instead of typing. See ya.

Oh and see my videos section for the videos of this post.

Just finished a sunday city skate, and surprisingly there wasn’t a huge difference like i suspected (due to the rockered wheels).

If any of you out there are interested in getting together in Philly, PA or Springfield, MA area, just email “list at theslalom dot com”

Also found a new site with a great tutorial on the Crazy which is what i wanna learn next. http://www.skatefreestyle.com/

So i just got back from the art museum. First time with the new cones, but more importantly, first time rockered. I used 7472mm 88a wheels in the front, and left my slightly worn 76mm 80a wheels in the middle. Not rockered very much, but i think the hardness also contributed to the effect.

So doing the cones was way easier, and i was even able to do stuff i couldn’t do before, like one foot. However, skating around just to skate was very awkward. Oh well, i guess i need to learn to skate again. I’m sure there will be lots of falling when i go skating in the city, cause i’m not going to rocker and unrocker my wheels all the time.

Conclusion: rockered wheels is a must for slalom. Unfortunately i’m going to be shaky doing any other kind of skating…

While reading kiwidude’s site the other day, i noticed he mentioned kids drinking cups from Ikea that are the perfect size for slalom cones. I went to check it out, and sure enough, there they were. 6 cups for $1.49. My only complaint is they came in 6 different colors per pack, so i couldn’t get all the same color.

I ended up getting 12 six packs for about $20, and now i have plenty of nice cones that won’t blow away in the wind. This weekend, i’m going to shut up about cones and actually put them to use. I was going to do a Barry Publow speed skating clinic (to work on my double push) but somehow he got turned away at the border on his way here, so the clinic got canceled. I’ll use the time to work on my slalom instead.

Found this great introduction to freestyle slalom on kiwidude’s site, in london. I’m guessing he’s with the london skaters, i wonder if he’ll be here for the philadelphia freedom skate.

Kiwidude’s Slalom Info Page

I just hacked up some new cones, as an upgrade to the plastic drinking cups we’ve been using. I just used a hack saw to cut some of my old skate cones down to the proper size. Not as nice as buying them at that size to begin with, but better than the plastic cups that blow away.

I gotta go to radio shack to get more of these cones, 12 isn’t enough.